Tell me you were raised by a strong woman without telling me you were raised by a strong woman.

Yes Ma'am(Respect your elders)...

If your sister is fighting you better be fighting. If your brothers are fighting you better be fighting. If she finds you chose not to fight you better be ready to fight her when you get home. (Together we stand divided we fall) Stop crying before she give you something to cry about. (Self Control) You better not be washing clothes if its not your day to wash clothes. (Consideration) You can only use the dishwasher once a week.(Mindfulness) We don't do C's in this house, C's mean you don't wanna play sports.(Prioritizing) If the street lights beat you home, your ass is grass Mr. Postman. (Responsibility) If she has to repeat herself, you better duck. (Strengthen your reflexes) Her house better be clean before she gets home. (Time management) No you cant go outside by yourself. (Buddy system) She didn't ask for your opinion.(Listen with your ears not your mouth) Your teacher better not call her while she's at work.(Think before you act)

That's just the tip of the iceberg. I live out my mothers life lessons everyday. I can hear her now "You better honor your mother at all times or your days on earth will be short. I brought you in this world, best believe I will take you out" (Listen to God he will never stir you wrong)

If I told my mom how nervous I have been to submit a piece on vocal she would have a fit. She would respond with one or two things: Love yourself so much it doesn't even matter what people think,(God has the final say) or, Trust me if it doesn't kill you when you hit submit, it will for sure make you stronger." My Mom would definitely be happy I'm hitting submit tonight with no questions asked. She's going to be even more honored that my first piece is about her.

Let me start by saying, Only a woman of her kind raising three kids by herself can find a way to adopt a fourth child when all the odds were stacked against her. Starting with the system, not one person believed in her. My own mother will admit that she should have never been granted my adoption but she refused to take no for an answer. She will also let it be known she ain't got no favorites and we all get on her last nerve equally. She treats us all as the individuals that we are and all of her kids are spoiled rotten. She would also kindly add that the system has some kind of nerve to say single mothers shouldn't adopt. Especially when 90% of her friends had husbands yet all four of her kids managed to be 100% more successful than all of theirs. No, she's not the cocky type she just don't play about her kids and their education. She literally showed me and my siblings what it means to believe in yourself no matter what in everything she did. I will for ever be grateful for this lesson alone. My mom will straight face warn you that life can never prepare you for adopting a troubled teen girl, and in the same sentence say "If you believe it, you can achieve it, Then so be it." (Listen to God he will never stir you wrong)

Look at her now with four kids and ten grandchildren later!

May I mention that I was set to be strung out on drugs, in jail or dead by age 24 had my mom not adopted me. Where I came from no one belongs. No one makes it out with their whole mind. Now at the age of 31 there is not one situation I enter without loving myself so much that people opinions of me don't matter. So what I 'm a crack baby, watch me love me so much I graduate with honors. So what I had a rough child hood, watch me love me so much I give my kids better. So what everybody gave up on me, watch me love me so much that I could never give up on myself. So what you think I will never be anything in life, watch me love me so much that I become life.

My mother preaches everyday that self love is and will always be the best love. She says don't go searching for love before you love yourself and that I better believe her because she's "been there done that and had the scars to prove it". She guarantees me I will only find the broken pieces of what I think love is suppose to look like. But if I love yourself so much that it doesn't matter what other people think I will for sure know what true love feels like.

So here I am loving myself so much I'm going to hit submit. I couldn't do it without giving thanks to the one person who continues to showed me what true love feels like. From the moment she told herself I was meant to be hers she's been teaching me nothing but life lessons. Without my mom I'd be nothing but a lost sole in the foster system. Without my mom I would have never graduated high school and college would have been non existing. Without my mom I myself would have been a teen mom, a whole statistic. But I loved myself so much a husband found me. I own a business because my mom introduced me to entrepreneurship. I bought a house because my mom showed me what a real home feels like. I am a strong woman because my mom was one first.

So tonight I called my mom to tell her how nervous I was about submitting my first entry. She said exactly what I knew she would, "Well Jasmine, if it isn't going to kill you when you hit submit it will only make you stronger."

In the morning she's destined to ask me if I hit submit and I cant wait to respond exactly how she raised me:

Yes Ma'am!

Didn't I tell you to walk with your head up high? Don't you ever forget that your future is in front of you.

Yes Ma'am!